The main objective of our project entitled “Maths Around Us” is to improve through Maths the students key competences according to the strategic framework ET 2020 to rise PISA results in all the countries and building their European identity through cultural heritage. This project is for students between 12-16 years old who are eager to take part in a science adventure in international company. The project is structured in six stages and for each stage one school will be responsible but all will be involved in similar activities at their own schools and the same activities during the mutual school visits to respond to the 3 priorities mentioned in the project: high quality skills and competences, building a sense of European citizenship and social inclusion. The key theme linking all six partners is Mathematics regarded as the Queen of science. The project is going to match Maths, using English language and ICT. The main objective is to improve the students' math competence by solving tasks in a Project Based learning approach, a less academic environment developing critical thinking, creativity and innovation and by perceiving Math issues in our students’ surrounding world, by encouraging them to try their best to participate actively, by finding similarities and differences between different environments of the six participating schools. Maths results and internationalization of all the involved schools are expected to improve as a result of the project. English, the language of the project, makes students more aware of the importance of learning foreign languages and develops their language competence. Students are going to find out and learn about history, monuments, unique nature or games which are associated with the project countries because maths is around us in every aspect of our life. So students will work on the project for two years working on the project step by step. Some of them will be guests and will take part in activities prepared by the host schools and then after coming back home will share their experiences with their peers and some of the students will work on activities at their own school. Teachers from six different countries in Europe will have the opportunity to exchange opinions and experiences, to observe different methods of teaching for two years and trying new strategies. By taking part in these activities pupils will develop their social and cooperative skills communicating and coping with the tasks in international teams, fostering autonomous learning and critical thinking. Working via internet in a safe environment, provided by eTwinning, developing their digital competence in a STEAM approach (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics).The project allows some students coming from disadvanteageous families with economic problems who cannot afford to go abroad to be able to take part in European mobilities enabling them to develop active citizenship skills and knowledge of Europe in equal opportunities. It is obvious that getting the grant will impact and benefit clearly the partners in terms of internationalization of the schools in their own communities as an added value for them and in terms of high quality skills and competences of the whole learning and teaching community giving the participants equal opportunities. Finally, if awarded with the grant, our project can be published in Erasmus platform and might help potential Erasmus applicants.
The main objective of our project entitled “Maths Around Us” was to improve through Maths the students key competences according to the strategic framework ET 2020 to rise PISA results in all the countries and building their European identity through cultural heritage. This project was targeted for students between 12-16 years old who were eager to take part in a science adventure in international company. The key theme linking all six partners is Mathematics regarded as the Queen of science. The project was supposed to match Maths, using English language and ICT. The main objective was to improve the students' math competence by solving tasks in a Project Based learning approach, a less academic environment developing critical thinking, creativity and innovation and by perceiving Math issues in our students’ surrounding world, by encouraging them to try their best to participate actively, by finding similarities and differences between different environments of the six participating schools. The project was structured in six stages with tasks (corresponding to the theme of the stage): -Maths in nature: symmetry, golden proportion, regular pentagon, equiangular spirals, Fibonacci numbers and similar triangles. -Maths in motorisation: speed, average speed, way, time, deceleration time, power and acceleration, the principle of electric and thermal motor operation and what conditions must be met in order for the electric current to flow in the circuit, learning how car brakes work and what the use of simple machines is. -Maths in buildings: the Roman and Arabic numbers found on the old buildings, golden proportion,geometric shapes, cylinders, Pythagorean theorem, similar triangles, Platonic solid, scale and Maths mosaics. -Maths in cultural heritage: national authors from Modernism art and literature movement associated with the Catalan culture in the beginning of the 20th century, pieces of work, geometry, maths operations as well as chronology, scaling, surface area, Roman and Arabic characters and time calculations, team work and cooperation strategies. -Maths in games: the probability calculus, Sudoku, Maths dominos connected with various Maths section: exponentiation, n-th root, percentage, units changing. -Maths in cooking: different measure and weights used in different countries, proportion, measure units, cubic volume, geometric shape area, net and gross weight, tare and currencies. Each school was responsible for one stage (gathering all the results of all fulfilled tasks) meanwhile all the schools were involved in similar activities at their own schools and the same activities during the mutual school visits to correspond to the 3 priorities mentioned in the project: high quality skills and competences, building a sense of European citizenship and social inclusion. Project's results: -better Maths results, motivation to learn and internationalization of all the involved schools improved -environmental awareness has improved -developed better intercultural and interrelgious dialogue -gained first-hand experience of living and studying in a foreign country -English made students more aware of the importance of learning foreign languages and developed their language competence -students found out and learnt about history, monuments, unique nature or games which were associated with the project countries because maths is around us in every aspect of life -participants took part in activities prepared by the host schools and after coming back home shared their experiences with peers and worked on activities at their schools -by taking part in these activities pupils developed their social and cooperative skills communicating and coping with the tasks in international teams, fostering autonomous learning and critical thinking. -working via internet in a safe environment, provided by eTwinning, developing their digital competence in a STEAM approach (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) -the project allowed some students coming from disadvanteageous families with economic problems who could not afford to go abroad to be able to take part in European mobilities enabling them to develop active citizenship skills and knowledge of Europe in equal opportunities -teachers from six different countries had the opportunity to exchange opinions and experiences, observe different methods of teaching for three years and trying new strategies. As for long-term benefits participating schools impacted and benefited in terms of internationalization of the schools in their own communities as an added value for them and in terms of high quality skills and competences of the whole learning and teaching community giving the participants equal opportunities. The project and its results might help potential Erasmus+ applicants. The activities were made to be implemented in the everyday classes and will be adapted and applied in different learning situations as well as in future school promotions.